The present invention relates generally to video conferencing, and more particularly to a video conferencing system that provides a greater sense of presence between two or more people when communicating at a distance over a broadband network.
Video conferencing provides a system for users in remote locations to communicate both orally and visually. Typically, each location in a video conference includes a monitor and a camera. Each camera captures an image at its location and sends the image to the other location involved in the video conference. Each monitor receives the image from the camera of the other location and displays it to provide the users in each location with a video display of the other location. In addition, a voice communication link overlaps with the video images to transmit the voices of the participants simultaneously with the video image.
To provide a more intimate connection between participants in a video conference, some video conferencing systems have developed methods for providing participants with better eye-to-eye contact. Some of these systems use a camera placed behind a transparent/reflective panel. A video image projector projects the received image onto the mirrored or reflective side of the panel, which the participant then sees. At the same time, the camera captures the image of the participant at his eye-level through the non-mirrored or transparent side of the panel. The camera then sends this eye-level image of the participant to the video image projector of the similarly structured monitor at the other location. As a result, participants at both locations view each other at eye-level, thus providing eye-to-eye contact between the participants.
Although such video conferencing systems provide better eye-to-eye contact and an improved sense of presence between participants, these systems fail to provide participants with visual communication that is effective in all circumstances. For example, in a video conference between a medical specialist and a patient, current video conferencing systems do not take into account that the medical specialist needs to be aware of the patient's verbal and non-verbal feedback while looking at a general view and a close-up image of the patient at the same time. Further, current systems do not provide a mirror image of the participants to enable the specialist and the patient to focus on the same point of interest by overlapping their pointing and to verify the patient's complaint by pointing with a finger at different parts of the patient's body. In addition, these systems are not equipped to support a situation where the specialist needs to direct an assistant or cooperating physician by pointing at the patient's body.
Current video conference systems are ineffective in other circumstances as well, such as educational and training classes, which have requirements similar to the specialist/patient situation. For example, in a computer education class conducted by video conferencing, the instructor and student must be able to orient themselves with respect to points on either the instructor's or the student's computer screen.